Elon Musk’s Boring Company, based in the United States, is developing a plot of land in Texas for employee housing. “Housing subdivision to support the workers” at Boring Company. The development, known as Project Amazing, will be located in Bastrop County, near Austin, and will include 110 homes built for workers at the Boring Company’s nearby facilities. Business Insider reports that Lennar will be developing the community on land owned by Gappes Bass, an affiliate of the Boring Company, in a mostly rural area.
According to the publication, Bastrop County Commissioner Mel Hamner stated at a meeting last month that Florida-based house builder Lennar was partnering with Musk’s tunnel construction firm to build an initial 110 homes near its headquarters. Austin is also home to a Tesla gigafactory, which Musk stated in late 2021 could eventually employ up to 20,000 people. SpaceX is also expected to establish a manufacturing facility in the area. The neighborhood is intended to house Boring Company workers and Elon Musk’s SpaceX facility adjacent to it. Elon Musk, who also owns the social media company Twitter, could be responding to a housing shortage in the area. According to The Real Deal, employees have been transported into and out of Boring Company facilities by buses.
Musk founded The Boring Company to build tunnels for electric cars to use to avoid congested highways. Project Amazing is the latest step in Musk’s companies’ flurry of construction in Texas, following the businessman’s relocation of the Tesla headquarters and his residence there from California in 2021. Musk’s companies have created thousands of jobs in the Austin area in recent years. As a result, there is a greater need for more housing for employees who come from all over the country. Musk is now not only boosting the city’s and state’s economies by creating thousands of jobs, but he is also providing a home for employees of his companies.
Musk has accelerated the area’s meteoric population growth and housing needs by relocating pieces of his business empire and thousands of employees to Central Texas. If all goes well, Musk and Lennar’s new project could serve as a beta test for a uniquely Muskian approach to the housing crisis: Simply construct it yourself. Tens of thousands of people are anticipated to work for Tesla, the Boring Company, SpaceX, and broadband internet start-up Starlink under Musk in the Austin region. Musk claims that the Tesla Gigafactory in Pflugerville could employ 20,000 people or more. As Holm points out, 110 homes are nothing more than a drop in the bucket.
Musk’s attempt to eliminate traffic is testing its product in a town with little traffic. The Boring Company, which aims to alleviate traffic congestion by tunneling beneath cities, is testing its tunneling technology on farmland in Bastrop County. According to deed records, SpaceX, the Boring Company, and its subsidiaries own at least 275 acres off FM 1209 and FM 969, almost all of which were purchased between April and June 2022. That leaves plenty of room for future developments if Musk and Lennar decide to continue building.
The housing development, dubbed “Project Amazing” in plan filings, will be built on 70 acres of farmland near a bend in the Colorado River. According to Bastrop County Court documents, the original plan called for two phases of development totaling 211 homes, but the second phase was removed last year. Lennar has already constructed two communities in Bastrop and 34 developments throughout the greater Austin area. According to SEC filings, the company delivered nearly 13,000 homes in Texas last year, roughly 2,000 more than the previous year. While Lennar divides its markets into regional categories such as East and West, Texas is considered a separate market.
ABJ first reported on “Project Amazing” at the end of 2022. According to documents from a Sept. 12 Bastrop County commissioners meeting, it has been approved for development and returned to the court two weeks ago to approve a new layout. The houses will be built near the facilities of Boring Company and SpaceX. According to the documents, the area will have four street names: Cutterhead Xing, Porpoise Place, Boring Boulevard, and Waterjet Way.
Future homes may be 3D-printed, similar to Lennar’s nearby Wolf Ranch community. What people will pay for these homes is anyone’s guess, because even though it’s being touted as workforce housing — “The Boring Company is working with Lennar to build this housing subdivision to support the workers there,” Bastrop County commissioner Mel Hamner said at a recent meeting — there aren’t any details about what might make it affordable to his employees. But what if you moved here and got a house with Solar City panels, a Tesla home battery, and an EV charger? And a Twitter Blue subscription?
Lennar is also assisting Musk’s businesses in growing: It’s a shareholder in the Boring Company, one of four real-estate firms that gave him millions of dollars to build tunnels that he claims will alleviate traffic congestion. However, he may be onto something here, and only here, because workers who live within walking distance of their jobs are what solve traffic congestion.
